Democrat asking if City Hall is out of touch

RAHWAY — Three shootings in four months and a political speech that concentrated on plans to borrow $2 million for parks improvements has at least one Democrat questioning whether City Hall politicians are out of touch with the serious problems confronting residents.

“Once a quiet town with very little serious crime, Rahway has become a virtual shooting gallery in recent years,” said James J. Devine, a local Democratic strategist. “Uniform crime reports show 42 armed robberies occurred at gunpoint and firearms were used in almost 20 assaults during the past three years.”

Police have failed to recover any of the firearms used in separate incidents that left one man dead, a teenager paralyzed and another 17-year-old Rahway High School student wounded in the leg, Devine said.

Devine said he was disappointed that City Hall appears to be covering up the spreading crime problem and ignoring other matters of vital concern.

“Not once in the State of the City Address was crime mentioned, nor did property taxes and unemployment receive any acknowledgment and the fact that Merck appears getting ready to leave after more than a century was also ignored,” said Devine.

“Mayor Steinman could not have been more wrong than when he declared in his State of the City Address, ‘I am confident that we are moving in the right direction’ because we have unfair high taxes on homeowners, children being shot down in the streets, no improvement on unemployment and politicians who are clearly out of touch,” said Devine. “After three years of political bickering and infighting, it is time that City Hall turn its attention to the real world.”

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and James J. Devine appear in this 2006 photo at the unveiling of a major solar energy project in Rahway.